These kinds of reactions can be found all over the place. That they can be voiced with total disregard for the plight of the Iranian people fighting for democracy and human rights against such great odds and especially by those purporting to represent emancipatory politics is simply astounding. There are of course many, many folks on the Left who refuse to fall for such drivel. But there are enough who do to suggest that thought leaders on the Left need to urgently re-examine the moral and intellectual health of Left politics.

Meanwhile, the regime ordered the mosque ceremony scheduled for Neda — the 16-year-old innocent bystander murdered in cold blood by the basij — to be canceled. She was buried hastily in Beheshte Zahraa, the large cemetery to the south of Tehran. I wonder if Eduardo Real, et al approve of this crime because Neda was a “fashionista rebel,” a “rich northern Tehrani,” or an agent of imperialism trying to subvert a revolutionary government by way of a color revolution.